Musings about the law, politics, culture, people, education, teaching and life.
An independent voice and an independent perspective - Carpe Diem!

23 December 2010

Ariel: The Farce Continues...

Wake me up when this trial is done and dusted, please.

I have been away for a little bit more than a week. It has been nice to not read a whole lot of news. It has also been nice to be away from an internet connection, and the temptation to see what frivolity came about in the latest trial hearing in the Peterporn saga. Yet, to be honest, I feel that seeing I started this "follow it through to the end" deal, I should in fact follow through. So, holiday or no holiday, I am back posting a running commentary on why this case should never have gone to trial.

The most recent reports have covered the testimony of Hadi Supeno, the former Head of the Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI). Supeno cannot be faulted for his commitment to protecting Indonesian children. He is most definitely, at least at face value, committed to seeing that Indonesian children are protected from all manner of harm. However, he is not much of a public relations whiz. He is not good at selling the message.

The primary problem for Supeno is that he talks in generalities and the grand schemes of things. He tends to downplay the "facts" or the "science" in preference for sweeping statements about how "he knows" what will harm Indonesian children and whatever he states must be accepted as is. Unfortunately, and perhaps beneficially for Ariel, no everyone does.

According to Supeno, there are four major impacts that children will encounter as a result of the release of the Ariel / Luna Maya and Ariel / Cut Tari sex tapes, namely: the videos will increase the sexual desires of children, the videos will effect the social and mental development of children, the videos will encourage children to replicate the behaviours they have watched, and the icing on the cake, the videos will lead to an escalation in the criminal activities of children.

Ah, evidence? Boy Afrian Bondjol, Ariel's lead lawyer in the case, questioned Supeno on the four assertions he made in court, and rightly so. Supeno could only offer up that "this" is what he knows. But, Pak Hadi, you really need to stump up some research. Surely, there must be some research that supports the proposition that children who watch pornography are more likely to commit crimes. Or that children who watch porn are more likely to become sexually active at a young age. Or that these increasing numbers of sexually active children are becoming rapists and sexual predators. Any research would do.

Seriously, if this is the best that the prosecution has to offer up as supporting evidence for their desire to see Ariel jailed for up to 12 years and fined a couple of billion rupiah, then one really does need to question the wisdom of bringing this case to court. There is no justice being served here. There is only a desire to deflect public attention from more serious criminal cases and matters that continue to flounder in the deep dark abyss that is the Office of the Attorney General.

Once again, the man made a sex tape...so what? If this "case" was dropped like it should of been then people would no longer be talking about it. So, for that reason alone, perhaps there are arguments here that the Office of the Attorney General and the courts are complicit in keeping this "morally questionable conduct" by Ariel in the public eye. Why would they want to be doing that?